Tracy Morgan to Star in an FX Pilot

Tracy Morgan is following up 30 Rock with a move to basic cable. Deadline reports that Morgan will be playing the lead in Death Pact, a single-camera comedy pilot for FX from creators Rob Long (Sullivan & Son) and Ted “Sexist of the Year” Safran (Doogal). Here’s the plot:

[Morgan stars as] a formerly lazy, pot-dealing assistant high school coach who returns to his hometown as a decorated war hero. He runs across three down-on-their-luck friends and former students and sucks them into his new radical self-help philosophy, which involves harsh consequences for failure.

The pilot is filming is set to film this summer in New York or New Jersey as soon as the three co-starring roles of Tracy Morgan’s friends are cast. Death Pact is part of FX’s efforts to beef up its comedy lineup with the cable channel planning to split into two networks, FX and a new all-comedy network called FXX, this fall. Death Pact, if it gets picked up to series is planned for the mothership FX, where shows like Louie and Archer will remain while Always Sunny and The League jump to FXX along with other new and returning comedies. Tracy Morgan wrapped seven years on 30 Rock in January, which followed the seven years he spent on SNL. Time will tell if Death Pact will keep that impressive streak going.